Daoguang seal mark and of the periodSuperbly enamelled in shades of pink, blue, turquoise, yellow, lime and spinach green with a continuous wide band around the body depicting a multitude of boys at play, one side with them holding lanterns and banners, riding hobby horses and swimming in a lake beneath a bridge, the other with them gathered in and around a walled pavilion courtyard playing musical instruments including a trumpet, cymbals and a drum, others clustered with fish banners in a procession, all reserved on a pink ground enriched with scrolling flowering lotus surmounted beneath the trumpet rim with two large gilt shuangxi (double-happiness) characters, the sides set with blue pierced chilong handles, the interior of the neck and foot turquoise glazed.48cm (19in) high

Footnotes

Provenance: an old label on the base of the vase reads:'Taken from the 'Royal Palace Pekin' by the French. Brought home by a Medical Gentleman'.

A British private collection. According to the family the vase was previously owned by a member of the family in Glasgow in the 1930s and thence by descent.

The present vase is adorned with three blessings relating to the New Year celebration: Tianxia taiping ('Universal Peace'), Chunwang zhengyue ('First month of the lunar year'), Tian zi wan nian ('Long live the Emperor'). Traditionally, the celebration marked the end of the winter season, and began on the first day of the first month (Zhengyue), ending with the lantern festival. The present vase carefully follows this theme, starting with the blessings and following on with the numerous colourful lanterns held aloft by the 'Hundred Boys' engaged in play and music within a garden landscape. These blessings are further reinforced by the double-happiness characters on the neck.

The vase is extremely rare and no other identical example appears to have been published. The design is inspired by Qianlong-period examples enamelled with boys at play, as illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pls.121, 128, 132. A related larger vase of similar form and decoration, Jiaqing mark and period, and a smaller vase of related design, Daoguang mark and period, are illustrated, ibid.,pls.168 and 194.

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